Two children killed as India, Pakistan trade fire in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India: Two children were killed on Monday in an exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops in disputed Kashmir, Indian authorities said.
Twelve more civilians, including two women and two teenage girls, were wounded on the Indian side of the heavily-militarised Line of Control (LoC) that divides the restive Himalayan region.
A police statement said firing from Pakistan had killed a 10-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl.
Indian army spokesman Colonel N. N. Joshi said soldiers were retaliating after "unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars" from the Pakistan side in the southern Poonch sector of the LoC.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947, and both claim the territory in full.
The nuclear-armed neighbours regularly exchange mortar fire across the border despite signing a ceasefire in 2003.
Tensions reached dangerous levels in September last year, with both sides blaming one another for cross-border raids.
There have since been repeated outbreaks of firing across the frontier, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including to civilians.
Pakistan said over the weekend that two civilians had been killed in firing across the LoC.
Last month it said a five-year-old girl had been killed when she was hit by a bullet fired from the Indian side.
New Delhi says Pakistan initiates cross-border firing to help anti-India rebels cross into Indian-administered Kashmir to launch attacks on its forces.
Islamabad denies the allegation and says it only provides diplomatic support to the Kashmiri struggle for the right to self-determination. — AFP